SANDERLING 803 



Morocco to Egypt, and thence across Asia to north-eastern China, 

 being highly esteemed by the falconers of that tract of country, as 

 well as by those of India, to whom it is known as the Cherrug, 

 though it there occurs only as a cold-weather visitant (cf. Jerdon, 

 Ibis, 1871, pp. 238-240), its place as a native being taken by its 

 smaller relative the LUGGAR, which it a good deal resembles in its 

 generally dull-coloured plumage. Falcons, however, are met with 

 as large as the Saker or larger, but coloured almost like a hen 

 KESTREL, and on such a bird was founded the F. milmpes of 

 Hodgson, published as a bare name in 1844 (Zool. Miscell. p. 81). 

 Some authors appear still to consider this a distinct species, but the 

 late Mr. Gurney referred it to the Saker (Ibis, 1882, pp. 444-447; 

 List Diurn. B. Prey, p. 1 1 0). In India the Saker is flown chiefly at 

 hares, small deer and the larger birds, as Bustards, Cranes and 

 Kites, often shewing remarkable sport with the last, yet in its wild 

 state it preys chiefly on rats, lizards and even insects, and when 

 trained for a more powerful quarry it has to be drugged to give it 

 courage. 



SANDERLING (Icel. Sanderla 1 ), one of the commonest and 

 most widely-ranging of the LIMICOL^E that frequent our shores, and 

 one in which great interest has been manifested, from the fact that 

 for a very long while naturalists were unable to reach its breeding- 

 haunts, though they were asserted to have been found in the Parry 

 Islands ; and Iceland was also suspected to be one of them. All 

 doubt was, however, put aside when it became known that, in June 

 1863, its nest and eggs had been discovered near Franklin Bay by 

 Mr. MacFarlane (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. xiv. p. 427), a discovery the 

 more fortunate since the species is rare in that quarter, and he was 

 never able to obtain a second nest. One of the eggs, on being sent 

 to England by the Smithsonian Institution (for whom that gentle- 

 man, at the instigation of the late Prof. Baird, was collecting) was 

 described and figured 2 (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 76, pi. iv. fig. 2). 

 Shortly after, the eggs collected by the German North-Pole Expedi- 

 tion were received in this country and among them were ten, in a 

 more or less fragmentary condition, obtained by Dr. Pansch on the 

 east coast of Greenland, which, by an exhaustive process, were 

 shewn (torn. cit. p. 546 ; Wissensch. Ergebn. deutsch. Nordpolarfahrt, 

 pp. 204, 240-242) to be those of this species, while the series also 

 served to corroborate the suspicion before entertained of the breed- 



1 A name often confounded with Sand-Ida, the Icelandic name of the Ringed 

 PLOVER, whereby several mistakes have arisen. 



2 The egg had been professedly figured before both by Thienemann (Fortpflanz. 

 gesammt. Vogel, t. Ixii. fig. 2) and Bsedeker (Eier Europ. Vogel, t. Ixxi. fig. 5), 

 but no doubt their specimens had been wrongly assigned, as were many others in 

 various collections. 



